Development finance statistics

International Development Statistics (IDS) online databases

The International Development Statistics (IDS) online databases cover bilateral, multilateral aid (ODA) and private providers’ aid and other resource flows to developing countries.

Our data are presented under three sub-themes:

“Flows by provider”, which provides comprehensive aggregate data on the volume, origin and types of aid and other resource flows;

“Flows by provider and recipient”, which provides comprehensive aggregate historical and forward-looking data on the volume, origin and destination of resource flows (including country programmable aid);

“Flows based on individual projects (CRS)”. The Creditor Reporting System (CRS) provides detailed information on individual aid activities, such as sectors, countries, project descriptions etc. used to derive aggregate data.

There are two ways to access DAC international development statistics, QWIDS and OECD.Stat (see below).

The DAC Secretariat collects and publishes data throughout the year:

in April: aggregate level preliminary ODA data for prior calendar year and forward spending plans for year +3;

in December: final detailed data including all individual project level data (CRS) for prior calendar year;

Users can run a text search on the entire CRS database from QWIDS. This powerful feature searches within all project descriptions. Open QWIDS and click on the icon "See All Datasets" (opens a new window). Then, under the Aid Activity Database (CRS), use the free text search box to enter your search term(s).

From the See All Datasets window, you will also have the option to view or download the entire DAC and CRS datasets (see "Bulk downloads" note below).

Please note the search results are dependent on the quality of the descriptive information provided by donors.

OECD.Stat

All amounts are expressed in USD millions in either constant or current prices. Constant prices (deflated amounts) include adjustments to allow for inflation rate changes in provider countries as well as changes in exchange rates between the provider currency and the US dollar over the same period. Constant prices are recommended for time series analysis.

Bulk downloads:

Users can download entire datasets. Open your required dataset in OECD.Stat then from the Export menu, click on Related files.

All .txt files can be opened in the Excel 2007 or later (use a vertical bar | as delimiter and ‘none’ as text qualifier) or any other software (for example Access, STATA, etc.) that allow more than 65,000 rows.

[1] Note about the individual projects (CRS) database:

Dimensions include:

recipient countries (possibility of grouping by continent or by income group);

providers (grouped into bilateral and multilateral);

sectors and sub-sectors;

annual commitments / disbursements;

flows: grants, loans, ODA, OOF;

channels of delivery;

type of aid.

The CRS dataset allows users to view and export the detailed list of transactions behind each amount.

It is also possible to download the CRS database by year (see Bulk downloads above). For CRS data, this is the only way to obtain data for commitments prior to 1995 and for disbursements prior to 2002.

The bulk files enable data users to carry out multi-faceted analysis by filtering different categories such as provider, recipient, purpose and channel. A text search on the project descriptions provides the data users with further information on the relevant activities, although text search results would be dependent on the quality of the descriptive information obtained from providers.

For additional information, see the DAC and CRS technical users guides.